A microelectronic device with Fowler-Nordheim tunneling current modulation is disclosed in the article titled “Fabrication of Lateral Field Emission Triode with a High Current Density and High Transconductance Using the Local Oxidation of the polysilicon Layer”, Park et al., IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices, vol. 46, No. 6, June 1999.
Such a device is illustrated in FIG. 1 and comprises a cathode 11 and an anode 12 facing each other. They are separated by an empty channel space and supported on a substrate 10, for example, of the semiconductor on insulator type. The channel may be on the order of about a hundred nanometers long. The cathode 11 has a pointed shape to encourage electron emission. The device also comprises a gate 15 to control the electron flow between the cathode 11 and the anode 12. The gate 15 is located between the cathode 11 and the anode 12 and is formed in the same plane as the cathode and the anode. The gate 15 is also formed from two separate parts 15a/15b each with a pointed shape and located facing each other.
Modulation of the Fowler-Nordheim current within such a device requires the application of high voltages. Furthermore, particularly due to the shape of the electrodes, it is also difficult to create a channel smaller than 100 nanometers for such a device.